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The Dying of the Light
"The Dying of the Light" is the 48th episode of Once Upon a Virus, as well as its fourth season's finale. Summary Jdg98 has yet again taken over, and this time it looks like it's permanent. Josh knows that he has to put a stop to this before it gets out of control, and with the Staff of Peace in tow, it looks like he's capable of doing so... but he can't harm his family, not with a granddaughter on the way whom he wants to make proud. Meanwhile, Joanna is once again tempted by darkness, and Selena finds herself entering a new stage of her life. Plot "Oh, well this is glorious," Jdg98 tells Liz, who continues to kneel at his feet, "I can't even begin to tell you how stuffy it was in the back of that moron's mind. Speaking of…" he pauses, looking like he's thinking deeply, and announces, "It's gone." "What is, Master?" Liz asks, entranced by the purple in his eyes. "The psychic block, installed by MaryPierceLopez; it's been permanently terminated. I'm free… forever." "Forever…" Liz repeats, excited, "What will you do first?" "Well I was thinking about snapping my fingers and ripping your intestines out through your ears but… what's your deal? I see something magical wracking around inside of you…" he squints, inspecting her closely. "I have a bot latched to my soul," she explains, "After seeing a glorious vision of the future in which you'd torn the world to cinders, I just knew I had to find a way to free you. I'm a big fan of your work." "Didn't I once stab you?" he recalls (see "Ultimate Power"), and she reveals, "That was the old Liz. The new Liz likes pain, and can't wait to watch you spread it across all the lands. I live to serve you. You are my Messiah." "Messiah… I like the sound of that," Jdg grins, "But I do have just one more question…" "Ask away, sire." "Who's this?" he wonders, waving his hand and making it so that Matthewvp09 comes soaring through a nearby wall, landing in a heap on the bakery floor, "I could hear his heart beating… fast. Is that jealousy I detect?" "That's my boyfriend. He lives to serve you as well. Right, honey?" Liz asks, turning to him. "Uh… yeah… hey there," Matthew says as he stands up and dusts himself off. "Ew," Jdg comments, turning away and saying, "Now, if you don't mind me, I have some powers to test." He proceeds to turn the nearest bay window to dust and hovers on through it, pointing both hands upward and firing bolts of lightning into the night time skies of Storywik. Dr. Strange sees this lightning from across town as he begins to make his way through the streets, approaching The Sword and Hammer. At first he knocks on the door, but then he notices the large, smashed window and so just wanders on through it, shocked at first to be met by Emma's covered up body lying in the middle of the floor. "Sorry," Josh tells him, "We've been meaning to move her but… things happened. My daughter is through there." "Thank you for arriving so quickly," Rena chimes in, and the doctor assures them that he would have been there sooner had it not been for the storm outside, before heading into the back room. Rachel, Selena and Tiago are all gathered around Justine, who screams with pain as the process of labor continues, and Dr. Strange comments that it appears he got there just in time, clearing the area of people so that he can get a good look at what's going on. Out in the front, meanwhile, Josh is saying to his son-in-law, "Lightning outside, but no rain. I think we both know what that means." "Jdg98 is free," Rena realizes, then spotting the Staff of Peace lying on the bar, "You said you took that thing just in case… is this what you meant?" Josh goes silent, hanging his head sadly. "Josh…" Rena utters, choking up a little, "You can't kill him, he's… he's…" "Hey guys," Rachel says as she emerges from the birth area, "Justine is doing fine, so you know. I figured I best head out and look for Joanna… she's been gone a long while." Joanna wakes up in the black-painted prayer room of the bakery, having been previously knocked out by Liz. She rubs the back of her head as she makes it to her feet, trying her best to remember what even happened. With the door still open, she steps on through it, immediately seeing that Jdg is talking to Liz and Matthew just down the hall and hiding behind the frame. "My powers," Jdg98 is saying, "They feel… weakened." "Right. That may be my fault," Liz reluctantly admits, now standing finally. Jdg wonders what she means, and she explains that she turned him light after he performed an act of good. She'd hoped for the Savior to darken himself first, but when she pierced his heart it must have been positively swimming in light magic. "That's okay…" Jdg tells himself, thinking, "I'm sure I can devise a process by which any residual… good… shall perish, and dark magic shall take its rightful place in my heart." Liz smiles, telling her Messiah that he's just as wonderful as she'd hoped, but he assures that she doesn't have to tell him that; he already knows. Joanna, meanwhile, appears shocked from behind the doorframe, and her eyes grow wider when Jdg98 mentions, "Is that… another heartbeat I detect?" The Blood Wiccan quickly melts down into a red puddle, escaping the bakery as fast as she's able. Justine continues to scream, her legs now raised and spread with Dr. Strange positioned in between them, telling her that this baby is moving along fast. As another contraction befalls her, Selena positions herself by her side, grabbing her hand and assuring, "It's okay. You're doing great. This is just like that time I sat on a rock and it got stuck. You just gotta breathe, and wait, and breathe, and wait." "Please shut up," Lady begs, sweating, while Tiago watches amused. Selena tells her, "It's okay to say mean things, I know you don't really mean it. Now breathe!" She screams instead, and Selena asks if it would make her feel less awkward if she screamed as well; not waiting for an answer, she begins to do so, and Justine manages to call out, "Rena will you get the hell in here!?!!" "I'll be right in," Rena exclaims in reply, still talking to Josh in the front room. "Josh, you can't be serious… you can't kill my son," he goes on to whisper. "Do you think I want to? But soon I might not have a choice… it's the only way," the Evil Bureaucrat argues. "I refuse to accept that," Rena tells him, "There is always another way." "Rena…" "Did you mean what you said earlier? That you wanted to make your granddaughter proud? Do you really want the first thing you do after she's born to be murdering your other grandchild?!" "Rena!" Lady is heard calling again, and Rena decides to head into the back room, telling Josh before he does so, "Make good on your word… for once." Standing alone with no one but Emma's corpse for company, Josh finds himself lifting the Staff of Peace off of the counter. He stares hard at it, deeply conflicted. Peep forms from blood in the middle of town, needing to stop and catch her breath; her head is still in deep pain from the whack it took from Liz's sword handle. "Having a fun night?" asks Divina, emerging from behind a streetlamp. Joanna just looks annoyed, still breathing heavily, and can't be bothered to reply. "It appears Liz saved me the trouble of having to kill your daughter, or, our daughter, or, whatever that girl was. Quite the anomaly. But I guess that's one less freak this world has to worry about now, isn't it? You know, I was gonna go after her next, but, with her dead, I figured I have to think up whole new ways to try to get to you… but then I realized how simple the solution is: I just have to kill you myself. You can't be as powerful as everyone says… let's see once and for all just how tough you really ar—" Divina is cut off mid-sentence, because Peep has charged at her and launched a lightning-clad fist right through her twin sister's skull, killing her instantly. When she removes her hand, it's covered in blood, and Divina's body flops uselessly to the ground, a massive hole in her face. All is silent for a while… and then Joanna hears a gasp. She turns to see Rachel, staring at her and what she's just done in utter shock. "No… no!" Joanna calls out, but it's too late. Rachel is already walking away, and Joanna has little chance of catching up to her – or of convincing her to come back if she does. Jdg98, Liz and Matthew are making their way through the town, and the latter is wondering why they have to bother with walking when Jdg can just fly. "Don't question the Messiah," Liz orders, and Jdg advises that Matthew listen to his girlfriend, since he'd hate for him to be his first kill of the evening. "To turn my light magic dark, I'm going to need to revisit all the worst deeds I've committed – what better place to start than with the bodies I've put in the ground?" "So we're heading to the graveyard," Liz realizes, to which her master replies, "Bingo. And we don't want anyone being there to stop us, hence the covert system of walking, Matthew." He grumbles something inaudible and drops behind the other two. When Liz notices this, she allows Jdg to go on ahead so that she can talk to her boyfriend, asking him what's wrong. "You said that when Jdg was free, he'd be able to take your bot and put it in me," Matthew reminds her. "Oh yeah, I… I said that, didn't I?" Liz recalls awkwardly, "And he will," she lies, "After this ritual he's planning has come to pass. You'll see." "Alright," Matthew trusts, "How much longer?" he calls out. "You know what, Matthew," Jdg says as he turns around to face him, "Why don't you take a little detour? This ritual will require all those who have died for the sake of me, so there's something I need you to go and collect… or rather, someone." Rachel makes it into her and Joe's apartment and slams the door behind herself, immediately bursting into tears. She quickly approaches her old genie bottle on the shelf, which has been repurposed since last we saw it, and begins pouring wine from it into a glass. However, as she pours, the wineglass falls onto the floor. The former genie reaches down to pick it up and notices that it's chipped… just like the one on her first date with Joanna (see "Body and Soul"). She doesn't look sad anymore… she just looks angry, and suddenly the glass shatters in her grip, turning to sand on the floor. "Oh, my God…" Rachel utters, realizing that she just performed magic. Thinking it might have been another fluke, she waves her hand and tries to do it again. She succeeds, making some books come flying off the shelf where her bottle was being stored. She then repairs the glass and shatters it all over again, laughing as she does so. As Peep nears the bar, wanting to warn everyone of what Jdg98 has in store, she finds herself kneeling on the ground, crying. Everything she's gone through in the space of a single day and night suddenly hits her like a brick, and it's because of this that she doesn't notice Matthew sneaking past. He walks right on through the shattered window. Josh is the only one in the room, but he's facing the other way, clutching the Staff while muttering to himself, trying to remember things about his ancient weapon that he learned from Trellar years ago. Justine's screams of pain emanating from the back room are muffling most other sound, and so Matthew is quite easily able to pick up Emma's body by the feet and begin dragging her away, leaving the table cloth behind in his wake. He soon has her body slung over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, heading outside with it. When Joanna finally looks up, she sees this, and yells, "Hey!" She takes a small while to get to her feet, during which time Matthew says, "Jdg98 sends his regards," before running away with her daughter's remains, to her deep devastation. When she makes it to the bar, she tells Josh, who she sees is holding the almighty Staff of Peace, "You better be damn ready to use that thing on Jdg." "Don't worry," Josh says, turning around with a smile on his face, apparently having just remembered something at last, "I am." The moon illuminates the graveyard nicely as Jdg and Liz enter through its gates. It isn't long before Jdg is working his magic and making it so that the graves of Valentina, Natalia and Ben are all torn to shreds, and the skeletons of all three rise up to be rested on the nearby ground. Emma's body is soon dumped beside them by Matthew and Jdg fails to thank him, leading his reluctant servant to ask if the ritual is nearly ready yet. "There are a few missing guests…" Jdg reveals, clapping his hands. Out in the fields of Storywik, the ground begins to tear itself open and Brad's dead body floats up out of his grave, moving towards the graveyard. The same thing is happening to the body of the Kahns, and it isn't long before all three of them are lying next to Disney, Mary, Villain and Emma. "If you could just do that, why did I need to go collect the blonde girl myself?" Matthew wonders. "You didn't," Jdg tells him, "I just wanted you to leave for a while. You're pretty annoying to be around." Matthew looks indignant and Liz shoots him a look, wanting her boyfriend and her Messiah to get along. "Is this enough for the ritual?" she wonders, and Jdg assures her that it's not everyone… but it should suffice. He then tells his two servants to take a step back before making it so that the corpses arrange themselves in a circle around him. Before long, glowing figures of the people that once were hover above their bodies while Jdg98 utters words in a strange, foreign language. Selena, Tiago and Rena are all encouraging Justine as she nears giving birth; Dr. Strange tells her that she's ten centimeters dilated, so this baby is coming any moment now – "Get ready to push." The loudest scream yet ensues, and Josh watches from the entranceway to the back room, before turning his attention back to DeviousPeep in the bar area, the Staff of Peace still in his grip. "So are you gonna blow Jdg to dust or what?" she asks, and he explains, "This Staff is very powerful, and capable of a great many things." "Right… and one of those things is the ability to blow Jdg to dust, right?" she makes sure. "Yes… and Jdg shall indeed perish… but I have to do so in a way that doesn't kill Joe," he goes on. Joanna wonders how that's supposed to work, and Josh explains further, "I think that I can use the energy from this Staff to tear the two personas apart, eradicating Jdg from Joe's head forever…" "Well that's great!" Joanna exclaims. "But there's a cost," Josh goes on, "All the power that would go into turning Joe to dust… it has to go somewhere…" "You're… you're gonna redirect it into yourself…" Peep realizes, "You would sacrifice yourself… for your grandson?" "I think I have to," Josh concedes. After a long pause, Peep tells him, "Let me." "What?" "Let me do it… my daughter's dead… Rachel left me… every dream I ever had has blown up in my face… I have nothing left to live for," she weeps. "I'm sorry," Josh says genuinely, "But the Staff's already bonded to me… only I can use it." "I… can hardly believe this," says Peep. "I'll be okay," Josh assures, "I probably deserve it. But would you do me a favor?" "Of… of course," Joanna agrees, all of this coming as quite a shock to her. With that, Josh makes his scythe appear magically in his hand, passing it over to the Blood Wiccan. "Take good care of it for me." "… I will," she promises, choking up. Lady gives another loud scream as she pushes out the baby, and he decides that that's his cue to leave. "Reginafan, wait," Peep says, "I… I've enjoyed our rivalry, over the years." "Me too," Josh smiles, outstretching his hand to shake hers. She wishes him luck before he teleports out of the bar with the Staff of Peace in tow. Jdg continues to be surrounded by the ghostly figures of those who died in his name: Val, Ben, Mary, Brad, Mike, Gabrielle and Emma all with eerie smiles etched upon their faces as they stand above their respective corpses. Still muttering strange words, he nears the end of his ritual, his purple eyes shimmering in the moonlight. "Jdg98! It's time to end this…" a voice suddenly booms, and the ceremony ceases. The ghostly figures dissipate and only a ring of dead bodies remains. Josh is standing there, the Staff behind his back, and his all-powerful grandchild appears deeply insulted. "You dare interrupt me?" he asks, hovering a little above the ground, and Matthew shields his girlfriend from what's to come, deciding to push her into the nearby mausoleum against her will and lock them both inside. "What makes you think you're able to face me?" the so-called 'Messiah' goes on. Josh then reveals the Staff of Peace to be within his grip, and he replies, "This." Jdg stares at it, merely intrigued. "Come on, baby, you're doing great!" Rena assures his wife as her screams grow ever-louder. "Yeah, this is like the nativity but with less sheep!" Selena exclaims, garnering an exhaustive punch in the face from the woman in labor. She decides it's time to clap out and makes her way into the corner with Tiago. More screams. More screams. Screams. And then… crying. A baby crying. Dr. Strange lifts the baby girl into the air, showing her to her mother and father. They look at her with tears in their eyes, and the doctor asks Rena if he'd like to cut the umbilical cord. While this process takes place, Justine finds herself asking where her dad is. Her baby daughter is then placed into her arms while Rena goes into the front room to investigate. All he finds is DeviousPeep, holding Josh's scythe and looking depressed. "There's something you should know…" she tells him, suggesting that they head into the back room so as to alert everyone at once. "You know, I've done a lot of bad things in my lifetime. I've killed men, women, children… all without a second thought. But today's the day that all that changes. Today's the day where the Evil Bureaucrat dies once and for all. Me, however… my legacy will live on. And it shall be far greater than any second-rate worship you can round up, you rank, arrogant pretender." "Are you quite done?" Jdg asks, yawning, "It's only, you've not even so much as pointed the shiny stick at me yet." "Oh, don't worry, we're getting to that," Josh assures, pointing the Staff of Peace in any random direction and letting off a jet of black and white lightning, reducing a nearby church spire to dust. Jdg's purple eyes now convey something akin to fear, while Josh smiles. "Are you sure you want to do this?" asks the false idol. "Deadly," Josh assures, but Jdg flashes an eerie smile before firing off a jet of flame from his hands. The Mayor manages to stop them in their tracks, firing his own swirl of black and white lightning from the Staff. The two beams meet in the middle, illuminating the graveyard more than the full moon in the sky ever could. "This… ends… now!" Josh manages to spit out, his lightning overpowering Jdg's flames and causing them to dissipate. The beam emanating from the Staff hits Jdg right between the eyes, seeping into his brain and making it so that he can't move. Reginafan2626 focuses hard, closing his eyes as he works to separate the minds of Jdg98 and Joseph Kahn. Eventually, the beam cuts off, and Jdg's purple eyes go away, allowing for Joe to fall limply to the ground. Meanwhile, a flush of energy is seen entering Josh's system, and he screams in pain as he too collapses. He looks up as his life slips away, seeing the faces of those who have meant so much to him over the years. His father, CoyoteDork, looks down at him and smiles, as does his wife, Primadonna Girl. And then there's Lady Junky, who utters, "Daddy?" But it's no vision. She's really standing there, causing the others to fade away as she crouches at her father's side. "Lady…" he utters, "How… did you find me?" "I teleported," she reveals. "You… you can… do that?" "It wasn't me," she says, "It was her." And then Josh notices the little bundle in his daughter's arms – his newborn granddaughter, who turns her tiny head to look at him. "You made her proud today, daddy… just like you wanted," she assures, tears in her eyes, and Josh manages to reach out and touch the baby's forehead. "She's… so… beautiful," he manages to say before his eyes turn still and his body goes slack, the Staff of Peace rolling out of his grip. Justine leans over and kisses his forehead, before making sure that his eyes are closed. From nearby, Joe stirs, and it isn't long before he's on his feet. "Mom?" he sees, and she smiles through her tears in his direction, beckoning for him to come and meet his baby sister. "What happened to Josh?" Joe wonders, his head all foggy. "He saved us," Justine reveals, stealing one last glance at her father's body, "He saved all of us." The shot remains fixed on the dead face of The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors. That same face is seen lying in a coffin the following day, everyone having gathered around it as it's lowered into the ground. Justine drops a rose onto it once it's closed, while Joanna lowers in his beloved scythe. Joe pours in the first handful of dirt, and we next see everyone sat down in the church yard as a funeral service for both Josh and Emma takes place, all the other bodies which Jdg98 unearthed having been firmly and respectfully reburied. As she stares at the final resting place of her daughter, Joanna flashes back to the first moment she held her in her arms, and the time she spent with her while they were together in Storywik. Joe, meanwhile, thinks back to the two of them doing archery as children, as well as a kiss they shared more recently. When focus is once again on Josh, Joe remembers their time together in Wikia, while Rena chooses to focus on Josh's hero era in Storywik. Joanna thinks of the first time they met. Justine recalls the more loving moments of her childhood, while the baby girl in her arms stirs. "Remember him, Julietfan2626…" Lady Junky whispers, kissing her child on the forehead, "Remember him." Everyone is later seen at The Sword and Hammer, where a double wake is taking place. Joe is talking to Rachel while Joanna sits alone, looking depressed. Rena is comforting his wife, who in turn is comforting their baby girl. DavidTennantismyAngel proceeds to break the quiet by banging a fork against her glass, announcing that she has a few words she'd like to say, "With all that's happened recently, it's forced me to realize that… that life is short. As such, I've been inspired to start living mine. I wanted to tell you all that… I'm leaving Storywik, and I'm taking a grand opportunity which has been handed to me. This time next year… I'll be Adrian Josington's next top model. So what I wanted to say to you all is… goodbye!" They all just sort of groan as tears well up in her eyes, and she proceeds to exit the bar, grabbing Adrian's card from her pocket (see "Submissive") and dialling the number into her cell phone. "Hello?" Adrian answers. "Hi," says Selena, "We met recently and… you made me an offer. I'm calling to take you up on it." She endows herself with a glamor spell as she continues to walk out of town, negotiating with Adrian on her cell phone as she does so, while the wake continues inside the bar. "So," Joe is saying to Rachel, "I'm still not entirely clear on what even happened." "Well, based on what I've heard, Josh used the Staff of Peace to tear Jdg from your mind. Right now he's probably floating through the air, a useless little consciousness." "You mean… he's still out there?" Joe questions, looking pale. "I expect so," Rachel believes, "I mean, he'll fizzle out eventually, with no mind to reside inside, but for now, yeah, he's most likely blowing through the wind as we speak." "Could he… possess someone… and come back?" Joe worries. "No," Rachel assures, "No one would be powerful enough to contain him unless—" "Unless what?" "Unless they were part of your magical bloodline," Rachel explains. "Mom and dad… the baby…" Joe's eyes widen. "Relax," Rachel begs of him, "I told you earlier about my magic returning, right? Well, I feared Jdg might come back so I bestowed them all with a little psychic protection. They should be fine." "Should be fine?" "They will – Joe, stop worrying. Today is a day of remembrance. There's no way Jdg could worm his way into anyone else's subconscious. It's not like you have any other family members wandering around town…" "Okay. You're right. Jdg is gone forever. I'm just gonna relax, have a drink… and remember those we've lost." Rachel raises a glass to this, and Joe clinks his own against it. We are taken back to the graveyard where two new stones have been added beside that DisneyMeerkats, MaryPierceLopez and Villain fan – ones which mark the graves of Emma Seer and Joshua King. The shot zooms in on the latter, which reads: RIP Joshua King Reginafan2626 The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors Father Grandfather Savior Suddenly, a hand bursts up from the soil, and then a whole arm. A head follows, and it isn't long before Josh is standing wholly above what was supposed to be his final resting place. He reaches down into the hole he created by climbing out, plucking his scythe from the depths of his grave. A close-up of his face reveals his eyes to be a bright purple, and Jdg98, having possessed his grandfather's corpse, dusts himself off before saying, "Oh, it is so on…" He marches forward. Category:Season 4 Category:Episodes Category:Season Finales